International Bioethics Capacity Building

The NIH Clinical Center (CC) Department of Bioethics leads or participates in several initiatives designed to support bioethics research and capacity building in low- and middle-income countries, including:

• Mentored research program for early career bioethics scholars from low- and middle-income countries: support for an individual bioethics scholar to pursue part of their doctoral or post-doctoral research in the NIH CC Department of Bioethics (2-3 months)
• Postdoctoral research fellowship in bioethics: support for an individual bioethics scholar to pursue post-doctoral research and training in the NIH CC Department of Bioethics (2 years)
• Indo-US Clinical Research Ethics Fellowship (partnership between the Indian Department of Biotechnology and the NIH CC Department of Bioethics): support for an individual bioethics scholar (either Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)) to pursue post-doctoral research and training in a Host Institute in India (3 years) with short residence at the NIH CC Department of Bioethics
• African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI): support for an individual bioethics scholar to pursue post-doctoral research and training in the NIH CC Department of Bioethics (2 years) and the fellows' home institutions in Africa (2 years)
• International workshops in health policy and research ethics for researchers, governmental officials and policy-makers, early-career bioethics scholars, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee members

If you are interested in applying to one of these programs, please consider reviewing the information on how to write a bioethics research proposal for our bioethics research training programs.

In addition, other NIH Institutes and Centers support bioethics research and/or capacity in low- and middle-income countries through the following programs (please note that the NIH CC Department of Bioethics is unable to offer guidance on how to apply):

• Emerging Global Leader Award: support for an individual bioethics scholar who holds a junior faculty position at an LMIC academic or research institution to receive protected time for research and research support (3-5 years)
• International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award: support for collaborative partnerships between institutions in LMICs and HICs to provide innovative LMIC master's level research ethics education (up to 5 years)
• International Bioethics Research Training Program: support for collaborative partnerships between institutions in LMICs and the U.S. to provide doctoral and postdoctoral research training programs in bioethics in LMICs (up to 5 years)
• Infrastructure Development Training Programs for Critical HIV Research at Low-and Middle-Income Country Institutions: support for collaborative partnerships between institutions in LMICs and the U.S. to develop training programs to achieve (among other things) high-quality ethical review of research for the protection of human subjects (up to 3 years) - view more information
• Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant: support for studies that break new ground, extend previous discoveries in new directions or develop preliminary data in preparation for larger studies on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of human genome research (up to 2 years)
• Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Small Research Grant: support for small, self-contained research projects, such as those that involve single investigators, on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of human genome research (up to 2 years)
• Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Grant: support for research projects on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of human genome research (up to 5 years)